Yes, Virginia, There is a Scott Walker

Gov. Walker spent his early childhood in Plainfield, Iowa. Walker frequently cites his Iowa connection when he is there testing a presidential run. So Walker might want to pay attention to last Tuesday’s election results in Coralville, another Iowa small town. Americans for Prosperity, founded by the Koch brothers, decided to make Coralville a takeover target. The New York Times reported: “Americans for Prosperity….jumped into the race to elect Coralville’s next mayor and City Council with an aggressive campaign, mailing fliers, advertising in newspapers, calling voters and knocking on their doors.” The issues were development, taxes and outside control.

But the Koch brothers’ candidates were defeated in a rout. Coralville Mayor-elect John Lundell received a congratulatory call from Vice President Joe Biden. Lundell said that Biden “indicated that he was very proud of (Coralville) that we took on the Koch brothers and successfully beat them by such a huge margin.” Big oil couldn’t buy a small town. Moreover, local voters rejected the idea that Americans for Prosperity’s involvement in local issues results “in good policy outcomes, generally promoting economic freedom…” Memo to Gov. Walker: your less than stellar standing in the polls may indicate that Wisconsinites want an end to outsiders like the Koch brothers trying to run the state.

And, then there was Gov. Walker’s inept campaigning for Virginia Tea Party-GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli. He lost. The Washington Post said: “The election of a Democrat (Terry McAuliffe) one year after Obama won Virginia…ends a streak of nine governor’s races, going back to 1977, in which Virginians elected the party opposite to the one that won the White House the year before. This also marks the first time since 1885 that any party has lost the governorship after just one term.”

Gov. Walker was also a loser in Virginia. Only a few hundred attended his rallies. Walker seemed stuck in a time warp. He talked of “big government union bosses”. Memo to Walker: only 4.4 percent (159,000) of employed Virginians are members of a union. Moreover, Virginia is a right-to-work state. “Big” labor was not an issue in the Virginia governor’s race. However, Medicaid expansion was. Cuccinelli was opposed, but Gov.-elect McAuliffe campaigned for Medicaid expansion. Note: victorious New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie is implementing Medicaid expansion. But Walker was out of step again in his Virginia campaign criticism of Medicaid expansion.

Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C. for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.

9 thoughts on “Yes, Virginia, There is a Scott Walker”

I’m a resident of Wisconsin and have been all my life (76 yrs.) and have seen several different governors in those 76 years. Scott Walker is the worst governor this state has EVER had! Under the leadership of the previous governor, Jim Doyle, (D), our state was in good shape, in spite of the national recession, caused by eight years of the disastrous Bush Administration. But the Koch Brothers decided that Wisconsin should be controlled by the GOP/Tea Party, and they spent millions to make that happen. Walker promised 250,000 new jobs if he was elected governor. That has NEVER happened! He’s cut funds in education, programs the benefit low-income families, Welfare, and other programs for the needy. He ONLY serves the wealthy in Wisconsin, doing nothing for the middle class. He’s against the worker’s unions, He turned down Medicaid funds from the Federal government for the Disabled, and needy. The Republican/Tea Party controlled state legislature has raised taxes on the middle class and lowered it on the wealthy. Our once proud state has been reduced to a shadow of what it once was. Meanwhile, Walker’s out there running around the country trying to get funding for his presidential run in 2016. He cares nothing for the middle class and the poor in Wisconsin. After he’s sucked all the worth he can get out of us, he’ll move on to another state where he thinks he’ll be able to get more money for his presidential bid. In my opinion, he’s egotistical, a liar and has criminal connections. I still cannot understand how or why some people in our state voted for this fraud of a governor! How can supposedly intelligent people be so fooled by con artist like Walker? It boggles the mind! I’m sure looking forward to the day we can vote him out office! I just hope and pray we still have a state left to save after he’s gone!

Donna, I can tell your ‘mind is boggled’ when you yearn for the days of Jim Doyle and his corrupt policies that were aimed at rewarding his trial lawyer buddies and his outrageous levels of taxation. I can tell from your usage of all the exclamation points that you are passionate with your hatred of Walker. Channel some of that passion into taking a closer look at recent history and learn about the housing bubble, which was caused in large part by President Clinton and Barney Frank forcing banks to provide loans to people who had no business getting a mortgage. When the housing bubble burst, as all bubbles do, the recession hit. Many of us Walker supporters are just as surprised that anyone could possibly support someone like Doyle, your beloved Obama, and Mary Burke who is trying to purchase the Governorship of this great state.

I like how Walker supporters could only hold onto legislative districts by gerrymandering and now seem okay with the state taking away local control and funneling power to the state for whatever corporation decides to write legislation for some lazy ALEC WI republican.

A Walker supporter only has 1 principle and that is to see liberals and democrats beaten and crushed, everything else does not matter.

A Walker supporter using a miilionaires money to buy the govenership as a problem! What a joke your Kochs and other seditious billionaires have spent more money and have more money we lefties will ever have. What a good laugh a rightwinger attacking success, but no suprise, another hypocritical position from a tea publican.

Jake, I did not attack anyone and most certainly would not attack someone who worked hard and became a success (neither of which apply to Burke). I have no doubt that you don’t have much money Jake but rest easy, George Soros, big labor and the usual lefty contributors have plenty to further your agenda. Stop with the name calling, try to engage in an intellectual debate. I realize that these concepts are foreign to you but it is never too late to learn.

Your answer still does not address the hypocritical nature of the Scott Walker supporter who now loves concentration of local control to the state, nor how you treated the first poster. Name calling and personal attacks is what conservatives do best.

Intellectual debate? Your first post through that idea into the toilet.

I am not sure where you come up with my love of state control over local control, I did not mention it in my post. As for hypocrisy, the consistent vitriol you post in your attacks on Conservatives proves this point. In one of your last posts you branded all Walker supporters as “tools”. You might want to be more careful when you post such bile as it is easy to dredge up and in this case show your hypocrisy. I simply suggested to Donna that she channel her energy into becoming better informed on recent history so she does not continue to make such reckless and inaccurate statements. No need for all caps, excessive exclamation points or name calling can be found in my post, unlike hers.

Americans for Prosperity did not back any specific candidate in the elections in Coralville but they were trying to push out the incumbents. My guess for their involvement would be because Coralville has the highest per capita debt in the entire state of Iowa (over $280 million dollars for a town of 20,000) and because their new mayor is mentioned as a candidate for Governor of Iowa. I am more puzzled why this town would want to double down on ‘leadership’ that has run up such a large debt.